SOME OF THE NAMES
By: Stan Jordan
Baldwin: Tim Baldwin plotted the town in Benton Township in May of 1890 on the Findlay and Fort Wayne Railroad.
Benton Township named for Senator Thomas Benson of Missouri.
Blue Creek: The township is named after the creek.
Brown Township, also Fort Brown for Col. Brown of fame in War of 1812.
Cecil for the first Engineer on the Wabash Railroad
Crooked Creek: Also known as Flat Rock
Dague: Named after an early postmaster
Doylestown after some Doyle who carried mail from Cincinnati and Toledo
Emerald Township: after many settlers from the Emerald Isle
Exchange Bridge: A canal town named because the canal towpath changed sides at this location
Forder’s Bridge: named after Tom Forder
Furnace: 1861-64 east on Canal Road into Crane Twp. Refered to as Old Furnace Farm had 25 – 35 bee hive like kilns
Grover Hill: for President Grover Cleveland and Congressman W.D. Hill
Hamer named after Gen. Thomas Hamer, an officer in the Mexican War
Harrison after Gen. Harrison of the War of 1812 and built Fort Brown on the Auglaize River. He was also a U.S. Senator and ninth U.S. President
Haviland for John F. Haviland a proprietor
Hedges for Mr. Hedges who laid the town out
THE DH
By: Stan Jordan
In my discussions with the boys at the Knights of the Long Table down at the “O”, we have kicked the designated hitter and baseball around quite a bit. Now here is some of the history of the American League adopting the designated hitter.
(I will save my true, honest and slanted version till next week.)
American League adopts designated hitter rule
On January 11, 1973, the owners of America’s 24 major league baseball teams vote to allow teams in theAmerican League (AL) to use a “designated pinch-hitter” that could bat for the pitcher, while still allowing the pitcher to stay in the game.
The idea of adding a 10th man to the baseball lineup to bat for the pitcher had been suggested as early as 1906 by the revered player and manager Connie Mack. In 1928, John Heydler, then-president of the National League (NL), revived the issue, but the rule was rejected at that point by the AL management. By the early 1970s, Charlie Finley, the colorful owner of the Oakland A’s, had become the designated hitter rule’s most outspoken advocate, arguing that a pinch-hitter to replace the pitcher–a player that usually batted poorly, exceptions like the legendary Babe Ruth notwithstanding–would add the extra offensive punch that baseball needed to draw more fans.
At a joint meeting of the two major leagues in Chicago on January 11, 1973, presided over by baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, the owners voted to allow the AL (which lagged behind the NL in both scoring and attendance) to put the designated hitter rule into practice. The NL resisted the change, and for the first time in history, the two leagues would play using different rules. In addition, the introduction of the designated hitter (Rule 6.10) marked the biggest rule change in major league baseball since 1903, when it was decided that foul balls would be considered strikes. Though it initially began as a three-year experiment, it would be permanently adopted by the AL and later by most amateur and minor league teams.
On April 6, 1973–Opening Day–Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees became the league’s first ever designated hitter. In his first plate appearance, he was walked on a full count by the Boston Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant. From the beginning, baseball purists decried the designated hitter in bitter, moralistic terms, arguing that it took away from baseball’s integrity. The rift between pro- and anti-designated hitter fans has continued into the present day. At first, the designated hitter rule did not apply to any games in the World Series, in which the AL and NL winners met for the world championship. From 1976-1985, it applied only to Series held in even-numbered years, and in 1986 the current rule took effect, according to which the designated hitter rule is used or not used according to the practice of the home team.
www.history.com
See ya!
THE ANTWERP MARINA
By: Stan Jordan
I had lunch the other day at the “O” with some of the boys from the ACDC. They were telling me about what they had in mind about that area along the Maumee and east of the park.
You are able to drive down to the river and put your kayak or canoe in and then drive back out again, but the ACDC is looking how to make a good sized parking area down around what we call “the island”. There is a lot of room or area, they just need some good ideas and some finances. Is it possible that we could get a grant of some type from the state? That river is just full of recreation ideas and we should be using it more.
I have been told that you can buy a raft that will hold the entire family or six people for under one hundred dollars. Now you can leave the air out of it and use it over and over, that is a pretty good deal.
Here is some hot news: Go down to the park and go east on the road over by the river, almost down to the entrance to the marina and on your left you will see what some enterprising young man has taken a chain saw and made an old stump into a kitchen type fork. Very good!
See ya!
PISTOLS IN THE SCHOOL
By: Stan Jordan
I certainly agree that something has to be done to make the classrooms safer, but what?
A while back I wrote a column about arming the lady teachers. I’m against that and I got email all the way from Boston telling me I was wrong. Well everyone has an opinion, but I’m against arming the lady teachers. I have kicked this around for quite a while and maybe if a man teacher wants to carry and arm, I would agree to something like this. The holster/pistol belt is equipped with a flap and fastener lanier that we see on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police and I will tell you why. In some schools we have some over grown bullies that would try to take a pistol from a teacher, but I don’t think they could get that done if a teacher was wearing a pistol belt like the RCMP wear.
(I understand that those boys are not armed with the old style six shooter revolver.) They use a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-automatic pistol with the lainer attached to the grip and it is carried with no rounds in the chamber in case a big keg could wrestle the gun from the teacher. It is not that far fetched that a big boy would try to show off and disarm the teacher.
Back in 1948 when I worked for the Railway Mail Service, I had to memorize the post offices and how they got their mail. I remember the State of Ohio was cut into two parts: north and south. The north had eleven hundred post offices and the south part of Ohio about one thousand offices. Now most of those offices had more than one school but say they didn’t and only one school with armed teachers in each study from 6th grade on, that is putting thousands of loaded pistols in the schools. I don’t know if armed teachers are good or not.
See ya!
SO YOU ARE 94 YEARS OLD
By: Stan Jordan
Yes, I’m am old geezer. I was born on June 27th, 1924 up on Wentworth Road. It was a big house called the Doc. Murphy house on the west side of the street by the railroad, he was a dentist down town.
We moved from there to East Canal Street in 1928 or 1929 with a team and wagon, that was the mode of transportation at that time.
I started in the first grade in September of 1930. Miss Lucille Carr Stiver was my teacher. I graduated in May of 1942; Mr. Bell was superintendent at that time I tried out for all sports and the drama club. I was pretty popular in high school, yes I should have studied harder.
The WWII started in 1941 lots of boys joined up right away. I didn’t enlist until later in 1942. The war was a team effort, everyone had a job some where.
I came home in November of 1945 and started in the local post office as a clerk in July of 1946. I retired from the postal department in 1981 after 39 years with the government.
I worked for Roland Kennedy for 16 years mowing the cemetery and enjoyed every day of it. The out doors, the air, the wildlife. I have been with West Bend News since 2007 and I love it and those people.
Yes I am 94 and some mornings I feel everyone of them. That guy who said, “You are only as old as you feel” was 21 at the time.
Yes I am enjoying life but it is very lonesome with Pauline gone. People are very very good to me and I want to be useful, if I can.
Tempus Fugit! LXXXXIV
See ya!
